Ashley admitted that there was a period of time when workers at his Shirebrook warehouse were paid less than the minimum wage because of the time they had to spend being searched at the end of each shift. He was addressing MPs following a Guardian report a year ago that workers at the sportswear chain’s warehouse had been subjected to rigorous searches and surveillance, which led to staff receiving less than the minimum wage.
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“As democratically elected MPs, we are responding to serious allegations of exploitative employment practices and mistreatment of workers at Sports Direct”.
That letter also said Sports Direct Chief Executive Dave Forsey will not take up his four-year share bonus, which would have been worth around GBP4.0 million.
Ashley also told MPs that he has discovered “issues” with working practices at the retailer as part of an internal review. When asked if that was a view shared by his employees, he said: “I would hope so”.
Ashley insists that people are at the heart of what Sports Direct does.
Committee chair Iain Wright said: “Do you think it [Sports Direct] may have outgrown your ability to manage it?”.
Unite officers said 110 ambulances have been called to the warehouse, with five of them being called for births and miscarriages.
“BHS is logical it’s also logical we could have offered extreme value, Sports Direct upstairs and BHS downstairs, I’m not saying a saint we could have got synergies”.
In a submission to the committee, Unite said Sports Direct’s business model was built on “cheap, disposable labour”, with workers hired through employment agencies on “contradictory” contracts.
Mr Wright said: “Mr Ashley says he has nothing to hide but – following a Parliamentary summons issued back in March for Mr Ashley to attend on 7 June – and when he stated that he was available on that date, he has only now indicated he will not be able to attend next week”.
Assistant general secretary Steve Turner told the Business Select Committee that workers were exploited, with thousands employed on zero-hours contracts, facing the sack if they had six “strikes” placed against them by managers. The Sports Direct founder first demanded MPs visit his factories first, offering his private helicopter to transport them, and only agreed to attend after the threat of finding him in contempt of parliament was floated.
“Some things have come as a bit of an unpleasant surprise”, he said of a personal review of working practices he launched in December after criticism from media and politicians. The union Unite alleged that workers who raised a grievance with the company after their allotted 336 hours would often be denied further work.
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Analysts say its problems are more to do with poor moves on acquisitions, increased competition and consumers growing exhausted of its cluttered stores.
